THE Polocrosse Association of Zimbabwe (PAZ) hopes the national men team’s impressive 3-0 series whitewash over the touring New Zealand Barbarians side will serve as a catalyst for more success as they aim to restore the country’s status as one of the top polocrosse playing nations in the world.
BY MUNYARADZI MADZOKERE
Playing their first international Test since 2009 as well as hosting the New Zealanders for the first time in 28 years, Zimbabwe put on an impressive display to clinch the Zol Test Series played at Borrowdale Country Club last week.
And a week on, Zimbabwe polocrosse, which used to rank among the top teams in the world, is still in celebratory mood.
“Beating New Zealand last week means everything to us. It has been 28 years since we hosted New Zealand and so for us to take the series is just amazing. We dropped from second to sixth in the world in that last World Cup but the last two internationals have proved that we can get back up there,” PAZ public relations officer Alison Coetzee told Sports World.
“The men played their boots off from the start and it is always an emotional thing playing in your country as the crowd will be behind you. They played hard and fast beating NZ Barbarians 36-14 and 32-16 in the first two Tests.
“But the final Test was the most exciting game of polocrosse we’ve ever seen. It was very tight and was only decided when Greg Sargeant managed to snatch the ball out of the back of the lineout and flicked a long one to Terrance Keith, who made sure he got the winning goal,” she added.
Zimbabwe won the closely-contested third Test 24-23.
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Coetzee revealed PAZ’s intentions for the sport in the coming season as they look ahead to the 2019 Polocrosse World Cup to be held in Australia.
“We are starting to build this sport up and now that we know the country has the horse power, we look forward to many internationals at junior and senior level. We are currently a small 80 members down from about 300 but we have to start somewhere.
“We are building our seniors up for the next World Cup in Australia in 2019, as well as building the junior players up for the future. We have a lot of juniors under-10 but we need to build up the scholar level. We are hoping to have coaching days to try and introduce new players to the sport and hopefully get some new members,” she said.
Coetzee said they were grateful to their sponsors such as ZOL, Bennetts, Premier, Zimflex, Koala Park, INCGO, Hunt Adams, Orca, Feedmix and Flo2Go for making the historic Test series against the touring New Zealand Barbarians possible.
Zimbabwe men team: Danie Swan, Codi Campbell, Graham Keith, Greg Sargeant, Hamish Michael, Terrance Ian Keith, Ross Shand, Patrick Parham.
